Helical french fries or curlicue fries as they are more commonly known, have long been a popular food item. Apparatus suitable for making strips for curlicue french fries have been known for decades. Earlier devices were usually manually driven. Later devices used simple mechanisms to rotate the potato against a cutter head. Large commercial applications required that the cutting element be rotated and brought into engagement with the non-rotating potato. A typical problem with early designs was the fact that it was difficult to release the holding mechanism for insertion of the next potato.
One proposed solution to this problem is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,838 to Samson et al. and involves the use of a plurality of spring loaded fingers which protrude into the wall of a feed chute supplying potatoes to the cutting element and which act to restrain the potatoes therein against rotation. A reciprocating plunger pushes potatoes through the chute. Such an arrangement, however, limits the speed with which the apparatus can process potatoes, since approximately half of the plunger's motion is wasted. The plunger itself contributes to the complexity of this system since its periphery must be configured with grooves to permit the plunger to pass by the fingers in the chute without pushing the fingers to their retracted position.
This feed problem was overcome by food processing apparatus disclosed in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 07/119,662, filed on Nov. 12, 1987 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,418 and co-pending patent application Ser. No. 07/292,926, filed Jan. 3, 1989 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,726 both assigned to the assignee of the present application. Such applications disclose apparatus having a feed mechanism utilizing a series of rollers including at least one pair of spiked rollers. The rollers continuously feed potatoes into engagement with a rotating cutting head without wasted motion due to reciprocating elements The cutting head of the '662 application is rigidly mounted and rotatably driven by a gear drive system. The cutting head of the '926 application is supported by idler rollers in free floating fashion and rotatably driven by a drive belt.
Although a significant improvement over the prior art, some problems were still encountered. One problem was that on occasion the entire potato was not cut. A butt end sometimes was left because the rollers could not engage the end portion of the potato being cut. Also, on occasion the potato was not perfectly centered when it entered the cutting head or exhibited a gouged surface due to slipping contact with the spiked rollers, resulting in helical strips having less than optimum thickness or uniformity.
The present invention overcomes the above-noted drawbacks and provides a simple apparatus for processing large numbers of potatoes into helical strips quickly and efficiently.
An object of the present invention therefore is to provide a cutting apparatus for use in food processing machines that is simple and efficient.
Another object is to provide a cutting apparatus that is easy and economical to manufacture.
Still another object is to provide a cutting apparatus with a minimum number of components, each of which is easily and quickly removed.
Another object is to provide a cutting apparatus that minimizes the accumulation of food pieces within the cutter head assembly.
Yet another object is to provide a cutting apparatus that improves the yield obtained from raw product as well as the quality and structural integrity of the helical strips produced during cutting.
A further object is to provide a cutting apparatus that reduces the number of butt pieces produced during cutting.
Another object is to provide a cutting apparatus that is better suited for processing smaller potatoes.
Yet another object is to provide a cutting apparatus with improved centering capability.
A further object is to provide a cutting apparatus that minimizes damage to the surface of the potato prior to cutting.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following summary and detailed description which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.